Corrie McKeague inquest: Lorry driver saw man in 'pink shirt'
A bin lorry driver has told an inquest he saw a man wearing light-coloured trousers and a pink shirt.
Last updated 13th Apr 2022
That is like RAF gunner Corrie McKeague had been wearing, when he drove into the area where the missing airman was last seen on CCTV.
Mr McKeague, from Dunfermline, Fife, was 23 when he disappeared in the early hours of September 24th 2016 after a night out in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
He was last seen on CCTV at 3.25am that day, entering a service area behind a Greggs store.
Police believe the serviceman, who was stationed at RAF Honington, climbed into a bin which was then tipped into a waste lorry.
Bin lorry driver Martyn Thompson told an inquest in Ipswich that he arrived at the service area, which was the first stop on his round, at 4.19am.
He said: "I reversed up to do Greggs' bin and, as I put the handbrake on the vehicle, I looked out of the driver's window, that's when I saw another individual."
He said the man was wearing light-coloured trousers and a pink shirt, leaning against a wall and "looking at a mobile phone, as the screen was illuminated".
"I thought 'He's a smartly-dressed chap, he's been on a night out'," Mr Thompson said.
He said he got out of the lorry to empty the Greggs bin and then did not see the man again.
Mr Thompson said he did not speak to the man.
Asked by Peter Taheri, counsel to the inquest, if he checked inside the bin before emptying it, Mr Thompson said: "I did check the bin because me and a colleague of mine, we always had this thing with that particular job.
"It was over-serviced - Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
It always had very little in it, two plastic bags.
I would say 'What an expletive waste of time'."
He continued: "I checked it. I lifted the lid, I can recall what was in there."
Mr Thompson said he looked "far enough to see three clear plastic bags".
Asked if there was anyone inside the bin, he replied: "No, there wasn't."
Mr Taheri asked if Mr Thompson gave the bin a "good enough kick to rouse anyone inside", and Mr Thompson replied: "Absolutely, yes."
Asked if he would be surprised to hear that there was "more than 100kg" (15st 10lb) in the bin, Mr Thompson replied: "Yes."
Mr Taheri asked Mr Thompson if he stood by his description that there was not much in the bin, to which he replied: "I do."
The inquest earlier heard from Alex Knowles, the bass guitarist in a band that played at a nearby pub and finished at 1am, who described seeing a man asleep in a shop doorway.
Mr McKeague was seen on CCTV, asleep, by the Hughes store for some two hours before he walked to the service area behind Greggs.
Mr Knowles said he nudged Mr McKeague with a crutch he was using, to try to wake him, and said in his witness statement that Mr McKeague "lifted an arm to wave him away".
He said Mr McKeague appeared to have food containers around him.
The inquest continues.